Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Although they won't always admit it, Peruvians enjoy being underestimated.

"Do you realize that -- after Haiti -- Peru has the lowest literacy rate in all of Latin America? Who would have thought that the most exciting literary magazine to come out of South America would be from Lima and not somewhere like Buenos Aires or Santiago?" asks Daniel Titinger, an editor and writer with the sleek New Yorker-esque nonfiction magazine Etiqueta Negra.

The smile in Titinger's voice suggests he knows exactly who expected Etiqueta Negra to put Peru on the literary map.

Founded four years and 33 issues ago by two brothers born in a remote part of the Andes Mountains who had no experience in publishing or journalism, Etiqueta Negra has grown from an idea "that probably wouldn't make it in a place like Peru" to a circulation of 11,000. The magazine is available in the United States only via pricey special-order subscriptions (www.etiquetanegra.com.pe), but it is read across the Americas -- from Argentina to Canada. While plans are in the works to distribute the magazine more widely around the world, annual online subscriptions (PDF files) will soon be available for $30.

"We consider ourselves a magazine for the distracted," Titinger says. "Our readers are high school students, university professors, retirees, depressed divorced women -- anybody attracted to stories from a backward world."

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Literally translated "Black Label," the name Etiqueta Negra was chosen to conjure up images of sophistication and quality like a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. With stories about swingers, suicide, soccer stars, conspiracy theories and Peruvian politics, the magazine created a quick buzz across the literary landscape.

"I don't read Spanish so all I could respond to was the idea and feel of the magazine," says New Yorker magazine staff writer Susan Orlean, who didn't let a language barrier stop her from having her work translated and published in Etiqueta Negra. "Language aside, it's one of the best-looking magazines I've ever seen."

Many of the contributing English-speaking writers are scouted by Peruvian American writer Daniel Alarcon ("War by Candlelight"), who runs a sort of North American bureau for Etiqueta Negra out of his Fruitvale loft in Oakland.

As an associate editor, Alarcon skims his favorite magazines, such as Esquire, Harpers and Believer, looking for stories that would be of relevance or interest to Latin America, and passing the word about Etiqueta Negra on to other writers from San Francisco to New York.

Along with Orlean, several well-known North American writers -- Gay Talese, Jon Lee Anderson and Tom Junod -- have either had their work translated into Etiqueta Negra or have endorsed it with written shout-outs. And to emphasize their support for the magazine, most of the more well-known writers accept their assignments for free.

"I'm happy to give them my stories without getting paid," Orlean says, "because just the thought that people from another culture are reading what I wrote and getting value out of it is more than enough. It's sort of transcendental -- like being transported to another universe."

A lot of Anglo writers like Orlean are also intrigued by Etiqueta Negra's graphic art design, which is louder and more expressive than that of most literary journals.

"The interpretation of a story I may have written in the New Yorker becomes more visually dynamic in Etiqueta Negra," Orlean says. "Obviously the New Yorker doesn't attempt that kind of aesthetic, so it almost isn't fair to compare."

But comparisons to the New Yorker are no accident.

Etiqueta Negra's founding brothers, Huberth and Gerson Jara, originally wanted to start a political publication for diplomats and businessmen with the Economist and Foreign Policy as models. But while they were searching for an editorial director, a friend of a friend put them in touch with longtime Peruvian journalist Julio Villanueva Chang, who had something else in mind.

"I pulled out a copy of the New Yorker and said, 'Let's do something like this,' " remembers Chang, who had a background in Peruvian newspaper journalism that felt too limiting. After the two brothers stared blankly at the New Yorker magazine and its stories with few photographs or graphics, Chang explained that the Peruvian interpretation would, of course, be more colorful and picturesque. A small sigh of relief followed, along with a green light.

Unlike much U.S. culture that gets lost in translation by the time it reaches Latin America, Chang understood that the inspiration from the New Yorker was merely a starting point. Because while, say, a rock band from Lima might be influenced by Depeche Mode or the Doobie Brothers, the musicians sometimes forget to throw their own Latino roots into the mix. Not so with Etiqueta Negra.

Using a lengthy, nonfiction approach to its stories, Etiqueta Negra takes on subject matter relevant to Latin America with internationally accepted journalism ethics but also with a Peruvian voice.

Last year Titinger and another emerging Peruvian writer, Marco Avilés, took on a multi-thousand-word story on the pride of Peru: Inca Kola soda pop. Part gonzo reporting, part profile, part exposé, the story was entirely Peruvian -- written with the slang, inside jokes and attitude of Limeños at lunch arguing about the national sugary drink's empire, which was (in some views) overthrown when bought by the Coca-Cola Co.

As the magazine grows in stature and circulation, Etiqueta Negra's staff still struggles to be appreciated at home, where Peruvians often underestimate themselves.

"When people see it on the magazine stands here, they assume it's not Peruvian," Villanueva Chang says. "Their reaction is, 'Wow. It's so elegant. It's so classy. It must be from another country.' And once they open it up and read it, they think it's a miracle. They become proud. And then they fall in love with it."

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